GSK to spend $100M; Lilly sell; Sherlock Bio raises $31M; Deerfield, UIC to foster research

GSK to spend USD 100 M to boost its vaccine production

Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has announced to invest USD100 million in its vaccine production site in Montana-one of its nine manufacturing units in the USA. In order to cope with the supply issues GSK faced last year, the company wishes to boost its vaccine production including Shingrix. It is the only vaccine proven to be up to 90% effective at preventing shingles (herpes zoster) in clinical trials.

Eli Lilly agrees to sell its legacy antibiotics, a manufacturing plant in China

Eli Lilly has announced to sell its antibiotic medicines, Ceclor and Vancocin, and a Ceclor producing manufacturing company in China. Eddingpharm, a China-based speciality pharmaceutical company, has agreed to pay Lilly USD 75 million upfront and another USD 300 million once the deal closes, later in this year.

Sherlock Bio raises USD 31 M in an additional A series

Sherlock Biosciences, an Engineering Biology platform dedicated to making diagnostic methods faster, better and affordable, has announced a total investment of over USD 31 million from Northpond Ventures, Baidu Ventures, the Open Philanthropy Project, and other investors. Massachusetts-based company will use the fund for making advancements in a method to identify specific sequences of genetic material in a sample using CRISPR; and INSPECTR (INternal Splint-Pairing Expression Cassette Translation Reaction for curing oncology, infectious diseases, etc.

Deerfield, UIC to foster translational research

Deerfield Management and the University of Illinois at Chicago together are setting up a company West Loop Innovation with an investment of USD 65 million. The new partnership will help to add funds needed for research purposes and garner critical support for the startup companies that will help commercialize UIC’s research. The funding will further help UIC to advance its expertise in identifying new therapeutic targets.